Lighting systems of the kind referred to here generally consist of polygonal lighting modules, i.e. light emitting modules, which are arranged to form an arrangement of a desired shape and size. For example, walls are fully or partly covered with a lighting module arrangement for displaying large images, or three-dimensional structures are formed for aesthetic applications.
One lighting system is disclosed in published US patent application No. 2005/0116667 A1. In that prior art system the lighting modules are thin building blocks called tiles, and each lighting module has several communication units, or ports, which are located one at each side of the lighting module. The lighting modules are arranged in a network for communication between the common controlling device and the lighting modules. The communication port can receive data from the controlling device through wired or wireless transmission.
US 2005/0116667 A1 is very general as to how solutions are actually implemented. One particular problem is how to make the lighting system as free as possible when it comes to how to arrange the lighting modules. Thus, it is desirable that they can be arranged in an arbitrary arrangement as regards shape and size thereof, and that the arrangement can be changed in an easy way. In this respect, the US 2005/0116667 A1 discloses little useful information. The following is disclosed in US 2005/0116667 A1. The lighting modules can either have a unique ID or an ID that represents the type of lighting module. When the lighting modules are connected edge-to-edge electrically through edge connections, there can be a handshaking routine to communicate between the lighting modules and provide information to each other. To determine the overall topology a sequence of communications from one lighting module to the next to the central controlling device. The connections between lighting modules allow a path of communication to determine the configuration of the complete installation.
Thus, there is no complete explanation of how to actually perform the determination of the topology, i.e. the size and shape of the arrangement of lighting modules.